


The Beating of A Heart

by callmechristinae



Series: The Man Twice Dead [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005), Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Schönberg/Boublil, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-04
Updated: 2013-11-27
Packaged: 2017-12-22 11:10:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/912502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callmechristinae/pseuds/callmechristinae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the TARDIS answers a distress call from a mysterious maze, only a crash-landed pilot can help The Doctor, Amy, and Rory find the way out.  But not all is as it seems.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

The voices in the darkness were calling to him. They echoed deep in his soul, which was all he was truly aware of at the moment. What they were saying he didn’t know. It was as though they were in a language he could only half remember. He tried desperately to make sense of them. They sounded uplifting and frightened at the same time. He didn’t understand.

As he tried to decipher what he was being told, he reached out with other senses that he quickly realized weren’t accessible. They were muted like in the brief morning moments between sleep and awareness. He could still feel the faint echo of a hand pressed into his, but beyond that there was nothing. He wasn’t sure if he couldn’t see or if it was pure darkness pressing in on him from all sides that kept him blinded. Trying to remember what it was like to see he was faced with the sudden realization that he couldn’t remember anything at all. He couldn’t remember who he was. 

There was somewhere he needed to be. That much he knew. No matter how hard he tried to focus he could not remember where. His thoughts flickered by so quickly he could not grasp a hold of any one of them. If he could just remember one thing, maybe his awareness would click back into place alongside.

The voices continued to ebb and flow alongside. He was lost in the chorus.

He was everyone, everywhere, and everything. His awareness stretched further and further. The darkness and he were one in this moment. There had once been a fixed point in time he had clung to before tearing it apart and falling. A sudden burst of desperation tore threw him as the thought registered. He had pushed himself here by choice. He did it to save…someone. He needed to get back to them. Back home. He was lost and didn’t know the way back.

The voices fell silent. The only sound left was the drumming rhythm of his heartbeat. While he could not feel a thrumming within his chest, he knew the muffled beating belonged to him. It was steady and strong despite the fractured nature of everything else he was experiencing.

But just as he began to take comfort in the drumming, it also fell sharply silent. The voices began to echo again. If he could have he would have blocked them out and hidden under his bed like when he was a child. He had been a frightened child once. He could remember that now.

The voices grew louder and louder until they overwhelmed him. There was nowhere to hide when everything was hidden. He embraced the void, instead fighting to reach the haunting echoes and understand what they were trying to say. The voices were embedding themselves in his heart. He fought harder to reach out until he could feel his consciousness slip.

He fell.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've finally come back to this! Sorry, life and other stories got in the way. But I plan to delve much deeper into this crossover world I'm creating. This hasn't been closely proofread, but I was anxious to get it posted. I hope you all enjoy!

Amy Pond considered herself to be a rational person. She had had an imaginary friend like any other child growing up. Her "Raggedy Doctor" had been fantastical enough that she became well acquainted with all the local therapists her family could find. Who would believe a little girl talking about a doctor crash landing in her backyard in a police box before demanding fish fingers and custard? But, unlike most children, her unbelievable stories were the truth.

Despite all the things she'd seen in her travels with the Doctor, Amy was still firmly rooted in reality. Sure she had fought pirates, saved a star whale, and inspired her favorite artist to paint her favorite painting, but she believed the unbelievable because she knew it was all true. Aliens were a fact of life for her. Her Doctor came from a planet called Gallifrey and had two hearts. Her dual life consisted of her work and traveling with him in his time machine/spaceship, all with her noble Centurion husband by her side. Of course, he spent most of his time as a nurse, but she didn't object to the Roman soldier showing up from time to time.

This was why she found herself completely flummoxed as she looked down the dark narrow passageway before her. One moment she had been in her kitchen preparing breakfast, the next she was here. She knew there had to be a logical explanation for this. What it was escaped her.

In the distance she could hear the strained screeching of the TARDIS coming and going. She hasn't seen the Doctor in several months, at least from her point of view. The last visit had been awkward. He watched her like he was afraid of her disappearing before his eyes. Then again, when you had lived as long as the Doctor, an entire human lifetime must seem like a coffee break.

"Hello?"

Amy spun around towards where she thought the voice had originated. Of course there was nothing there. Everywhere she looked there was nothing.

"I'm afraid you're not going to be able to see me just yet. I'm speaking to you over this dreadful old intercom system. You wouldn't believe the cobwebs I had to clean out just to get it functioning again."

Looking more closely, Amy could see a small speaker dangling overhead. There was an even smaller camera attached to it's underside with a dim red light that was barely noticeable. There were more interspersed in no discernible pattern along the ceiling of the hallway in front of her.

"And who are you exactly?" Amy asked.

"I can't remember at the moment. It looks like I had a pretty bad crash. Must have bumped my head. Everything around here seems to be labeled Apollo though. So let's go with that."

He rambled on like the Doctor on an adventure. This was not how Amy had wanted to spend her morning.

"Alright then Apollo, what am I doing here?"

"You mean you're not responding to my distress call?"

Now Amy was really confused. If she listened very carefully she could hear arguing over the TARDIS' screeching. That meant Rory and the Doctor were nearby.

"What distress call?"

"I told you I crashed already. Do keep up Miss Pond."

Feeling along the walls, the only imperfections Amy could find were scorch marks. There were no seams or grout in the stone as if it were just carved out of one giant block. As she walked the previously distant arguing grew louder. Then she paused.

"Wait a minute. How do you know my name?"

Now it was the mysterious disembodied voice's turn to pause. "I don't know. It's almost as if I know you from a fairy tale. I know you, but I don't know you."

This wasn't completely unbelievable. After all, she had gone to a Van Gogh exhibit and seen a sunflowers painted with her name on them from 100 years before she was born. In another lifetime she had grown up hearing stories about her husband protecting her as she lived for millennia inside a box. The idea that a strange English man on a labyrinth intercom might have heard her name once before wasn't too radical.

"Ok then. Next question: where are we?"

"Massive head injury and memory loss remember? You know as much as I do now."

"Well aren't you just a big pocketful of sunshine."

"You're one to talk."

"Hey!"

"I'm just saying all you've done since you got here is berate me while your friends are too busy arguing to even notice when I was talking to them. Maybe if you all calmed down you would realize it was that blue box of yours that brought you here and not me. And yes, I figured it out just now. She's interfaced with my computer to respond to the distress signal. Now, go talk to your friends."

Amy assumed the click she heard was the equivalent of Apollo hanging up on her. Previously unseen lights along the bottom of the hallway flickered slowly to life, guiding her to the right around the nearby corner. She followed them. It wasn't like she had any other options at this point. It was a little disconcerting that lights would flicker back into darkness as she passed them, but she was distracted as she came closer and closer to her husband and her imaginary friend.

The air was cold. Amy didn't know why she hasn't noticed that before. Her bare legs trembled. Of course the TARDIS' couldn't have waited for her to get dressed in actual clothes before zapping her into a chilly concrete maze. There would be no adventure in that. All she wanted was to go back to earlier that morning when she had been cuddled up with Rory as the sun came up in their nice, warm, toasty bed. She loved that comforter.

Once upon a time she would have given anything to be whisked off on adventure after adventure. But as she got older she found herself wanting to lay down roots. She wanted to be able to say yes when a friend called asking if she could do a girl's weekend next month. She wanted to be able to make plans without listening for the TARDIS' wheezing over her shoulder.

Yet, when the Doctor looked at her with those ancient puppy dog eyes she couldn't work up the will to say no. They had been through so much together. They had saved each other countless times. She couldn't turn her back on him now when he was so alone. That would make her a horrible mother in law.

"Amy!"

Rory gripped her tight. He trembled against her in his green scrubs. He kissed her firmly as though he was still surprised he was allowed to.

"We don't have time for kissing," the Doctor whined. Despite being so old, the Doctor unfortunately seemed to have the same tolerance for human interaction as a five year old afraid of cooties. At least, when it came to other people's PDA.

"Don't tell me you're afraid of swapping a little spit, Doctor," Amy teased, reaching out to tug him in by the lapels of his jacket.

"Still right here." The breath of Rory's whisper tickled her neck, making her shiver in an entirely different way.

"Shut up. It's time for a group hug. I've got both my boys back!" She hugged them both tightly against her. She wondered if the TARDIS would pause long enough to let her grab those old ponchos.

"As touching as this is, I'd really appreciate if we started working on how we're getting out of here."

The Doctor spun about, flicking his sonic screwdriver as though it were a wand and he was Harry Potter.

"You must be the great and powerful Doctor I've heard so much about."

Amy failed miserably at holding in the laughter Apollo's unimpressed tone drew out of her. Generally when they met people who already knew the Time Lord they were trying to kill him or kiss him. Sometimes both at once. Rarely was he greeted with such boredom.

"I am afraid you hold the advantage. You know who I am, but I do not know who you are." The Doctor continued to dart about their small alcove, encountering the smooth walls Amy had already inspected. "Care to clarify?"

"Wish I could Doctor. I've already had this conversation with dear Amy."

Taking a step back to avoid the limbs that were flailed in her general direction, Amy gently touched her fingers to the inside of Rory's wrist to reassure herself that he hadn't disappeared while her attention was elsewhere. "He crashed and hit his head. His memory is a bit muddled right now. But he knows who we are."

"I know you and the Doctor, Miss Pond. I don't know this other one with the nose."

With his arms silently tossed in the air in exasperation, Rory was clearly annoyed while remained completely unsurprised by the revelation. He muttered something completely unintelligible under his breath before introducing himself. "I'm Rory."

"Rory," Apollo repeated. "Good strong name. Lots of 'r's. I like it."

"Thanks for the approval. Now I can die happy." Amy smacked her husband harshly in the stomach.

The couple fell silent when the realized the Doctor had frozen in his explorations, his shoulders held stiffly and his screwdriver gripped tightly at his side. The TARDIS, wherever it had landed, had fallen silent as well. Only the faint buzzing of distant machinery could be heard. Amy felt it vibrating gently under her feet, no more than the quiet hum one felt at the shopping mall.

Beside her Rory straightened, falling into the proper posture of a Centurion. That was when she realized the machinery she heard wasn't machinery at all. She listened carefully and could make out the repeated whine of a single word.

"Exterminate. Ex-ter-min-ate!"

The group remained silent for several moments. Amy clung tightly to Rory's hand, which she couldn't even remember grabbing in the first place. The Doctor turned slowly to face them. His eyes were focused sharply in determination. But before he could explain his no doubt brilliant plan, Apollo's voice crackled over the intercom.

"I hope you all realize now why I'm so anxious to leave."

"How did you manage to crash into a maze filled with Daleks? It's a horrible life and death version of Pacman!" The Doctor was in his element now. He was vibrating with energy, but not quite as much like a whirligig as before.

Apollo sighed. "I didn't crash here on accident Doctor. They brought me here to find you. This all comes back to you."


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long delay! I expect this series to start picking up now. I have a goal of where I want to finish this and the two following stories before the end of the year :) I hope you enjoy this!

"You're meant to be bait? But why? That makes absolutely no sense. I don't even know you." The Doctor's frustration was verging dangerous close to tantrum levels. He was used to always being to most clever in the room, so the mere possibility that someone may have a better grasp on the situation tended to lead to him panicking or sulking.

The sigh that drifted by over the intercom was one that had left Amy's own lips many a time.

"Just because I'm an ominous disembodied voice to you doesn't mean I actually know everything that's going on. I'm just intercepting transmissions here. They said The Doctor would arrive once the sun had set. Once Apollo has fallen they can defeat The Oncoming Storm. I've had a lot of time to read here, so my educated guess was they think by destroying me and my ship they can defeat you. I used to hear stories about you growing up you know."

The Doctor frowned at this. Amy knew ever since the battle after Melody was born, The Doctor had been trying to decrease the size of the footprints he left behind through time. Many of the stories had died down. But Amy knew the impact The Doctor left could never be erased no matter how hard he tried.

A rhythmic thumping began to make itself known. Before Amy could place where it was coming from, a pair of Daleks turned the corner. It was clear neither party had been expecting to encounter the other just yet.

One of the Daleks was so clean that it's outer red shell was nearly gleaming. The other was a dull bronze that had grown faded and dusty. The two made an odd pair, but they were completely in sync in the way that mattered to them most.

"Ex-ter-min-ate. EX-TER-MIN-ATE!"

The Doctor tugged her hand briefly before bolting around the corner. Amy kept a tight grip on Rory's hand as she followed. It would be too easy to get lost in this maze. If anyone was going to get irrevocably lost, it was sure to be Rory. She wasn't going to go through that again. She still had nightmares of an older angry Rory worn by time screaming at her from the depths of the TARDIS.

"Left! The door to your left!"

Clearly when faced with taking a chance with the Daleks or trusting the man who claimed to be the bait in the trap, The Doctor wasn't going to take the time to second guess Apollo's advice. Amy and Rory didn't have time to stop when The Doctor shouted in surprise in front of them. They followed him down the steep slide, all landing in an odd pile of limbs at the bottom. Amy had never realized how bony they all were.

"I probably should have warned you about that."

There should be more pain somewhere if the crunch when they landed was any indication. She felt about her legs and hips gently, finding the source of the noise when she pulled out her mangled cell phone.

"Amy! That's your third phone in three months!"

"Really Rory? That's your concern right now."

"They're never going to give you a free upgrade again. You know that, right?"

To her left Amy could see The Doctor walking forward slowly, arms outstretched to feel his way about once he reached the gloomy darkness a few paces away. He ignored their spousal bickering without missing a beat. There was a faint light glowing in the distance, but it was so faint the darkness nearly swallowed it up.

"If you give me a minute, you can stop walking like a bad B-movie zombie." A faint buzzing sound followed Apollo's voice, and then the lights came on to illuminate a large hall of some sort.

"I've been here," The Doctor whispered in awe. He trailed a hand along the top of a pristine white fireplace. The golden clock on the mantle had frozen in place at either midnight or noon. It was almost like a grand mansion whose owners had just stepped out for a moment. The windows opening up to pure darkness were what caused the tight anxious feeling that was pressing in against Amy's ribs.

"Care to share? I've been stuck staring at these same walls forever. 'One day more,' I tell myself everyone morning. But no. It's this never ending road to nothing."

Despite the annoyance that dripped from every word, Amy found herself admiring the almost lyrical way Apollo spoke. She wasn't sure if it was a character trait. It almost seemed at times he was speaking from a memory, like when you had déjà vu in the middle of a sentence. She could tell by the up tilt at the end of his sentences sometimes. Like the words he spoke had surprised him.

"This is Versailles. Not the actual Versailles if course. It's a replica. Rode a horse through a mirror in a spaceship to rescue a girl from a clock. Invented the banana daiquiri. A good time was had by all." The Doctor smiled, but his eyes were sad.

"It changed when I crashed. It was just a blank empty room before."

"Considering you didn't recognize it, I'm guessing you have no special connection to it."

"Of course not. I'm English. Besides, I'm pretty sure it was destroyed during air raids when I was little."

"Versailles wasn't destroyed in the air raids," Rory interjected. Somehow without even seeing each other, The Doctor and Apollo exchanged looks of resigned annoyance. At least, that was Amy's impression.

"He's talking about the fourth World War. So you must have been born around the end of the 21st century?"

"2092 actually. Very good Doctor. Just turned 30 actually."

"Congratulations!"

"For getting older?"

"Some would consider that an accomplishment."

At that moment The Doctor darted off towards the end of the grand hall. He didn't pause like most people would. He was constantly flowing seamlessly from task to task. He seemed to be heading towards where the light in the dark had been, but now that the hall was lit, Amy could not make out it's origin. She and Rory followed calmly after. There was always the chance The Doctor would make an about face and run just as fast back in the opposite direction.

When they reached The Doctor he was pulling at a mechanical door. He paused only to use his sonic screwdriver, but the door held.

"It opens from the inside. If you ask nicely I'll open it for you. Are you always this excitable? Be serious for just one moment."

The Doctor took a moment to sulk. "Would you please open the door?"

Without a pause the door slid open silently. The air was fresh and Amy could see a dark sky with few stars above. The only light came from the sparks still emitting from the downed space craft. It had clearly hit the ground and then the nearby wall with force, but it had remained mostly intact. Even from the doorway Amy could still feel the heat of the engine. It was smeared and scorched, but Apollo had been hand painted across the hull. In it's damaged state you could still make out the brush strokes.

At first Amy thought they had escaped the maze, but she then realized they were just in an open air courtyard. She nearly began to cry when she found the light from earlier was the light atop the TARDIS.

"Apollo?" The Doctor whispered. He took a tentative step forward.

"Ex-ter-min-ate!"


	4. Chapter 4

"Ex-ter-min-ate!"

Amy's stomach clenched in fear as the Dalek emerged from the darkness. It was just as badly scorched as the ship behind it and had a slight wobble as it moved forward. It seemed like it was trying to fire at them, but only small bursts of static electricity emerged. The Doctor seemed more intrigued than anything by its progress.

"Ex-ter-min..." The Dalek fell silent and froze.

"Well. That was anti-climatic," Rory said from over her left shoulder.

The Doctor tip toed around the Dalek as it remained still. Amy and Rory moved cautiously, ready to run at the slightest indication of life.

The light from the downed ship was almost blinding when the door struggled open. It screeched to a halt only about halfway open, leaving an awkward diagonal opening. The Doctor bent over and twisted his body to force his way inside as his companions followed.

Oddly, the interior of the ship had a homey feel to it. Despite clearly being made of metal, the hallways were crafted to appear wooden like any of the older mansions Amy used to play hide and seek in after school as a child with her daughter Melody. Memories like that reminded Amy of how much the Doctor had changed her life for the stranger.

Images of paintings flickered on panels embedded in the wall. A few Amy could recognize from museum visits, but others she had no recollection of. A brief glimpse of Van Gogh's sunflowers brought a smile to her face.

"Doctor?" Rory was crouched on the ground towards the end of the hallway. The Doctor hurried over to him from the control panel he had been fiddling with and frowned.

"What do you think Rory?" Her husband's face immediately flushed with pride. It was rare for the Doctor to ask them anything instead of rushing forward towards his own conclusions. Usually when they were asked a question, it was more obvious that he already knew the answer.

"No one could survive this."

Amy's stomach flip flopped when she caught up with her boys. There was a lot of blood staining the floor. Its trail disappeared under a shut door a few feet away. Any moment now a poorly rendered monster should be leaping out attacking them for their brains. She'd probably survive a little longer than her traveling companions due to the fact that she looked great in a miniskirt. That's how it always worked in movies.

One swish of the sonic was all it took for the door to glide open vertically. The blood trail continued to a free standing console on the far end of the room, where it ended abruptly. Amy had been expecting some grotesquely mutilated corpse. Finding nothing at all was more dissatisfying than it should have been.

"You made it!"

On the screen above the console, just above a small round camera embedded in the wall, there was a young man in a barely lit room. His boyish face, with hints of the youthful baby fat that had recently been shed, was only half lit by what Amy assumed was a similar console on his end. His short blonde hair was clean and fluffy like the Doctor's could be if he put more effort into keeping it neat. He was remarkable symmetrical like many of the men Amy had worked with while modeling. It was no surprise to her that she turned to find Rory frowning at the screen.

"Apollo, I presume?" The Doctor sounded strangely morose from where he remained in the entryway. Finally in a well lit room, Amy could see how tired her friend was. He leaned with one hand against the doorframe, and there was dirt smudged on his cheekbone. His hair flopped messily onto his forehead as he moved. His eyes were focused on the pool of blood beneath the console. He was disappointed, but the slump of his shoulders showed Amy someone who was far too used to disappointment.

"Doctor! Why are you all out there? Come in!"

There were no doors that Amy could see. Rory began to feel along the walls for invisible seams.

"We can't follow you." The Doctor strolled into the room, kicking his feet along the floor with each step. He leaned back against the front of the console with his arms outstretched to either side to support him. He was focused entirely on the small eye like camera. "What do you remember from the crash?"

"We were under fire. I couldn't stabilize the ship. I got up to help the passengers, but we hit the ground before I could. Everything went red, then everything went black. Then I woke up in this room."

"Are you cold?"

"What?" Apollo looked confused.

"Are you cold?" The Doctor repeated.

"No. I'm comfortable."

"Are you comfortable or are you nothing?"

"What's the difference?"

"What do you feel?"

Apollo lurched back from the screen and disappeared from sight as the camera emerged from the wall, looking similar to a Dalek eye stalk. It inspected The Doctor, but the Time Lord didn't move. He just watched the blank screen until Apollo reappeared.

"What is this? What is this void I'm in?"

"It's not a void. You've been saved to the ship's computer."

Rory scoffed, but was silenced by a sharp look from his wife.

"No, I would know if that happened."

"It happened to some friends of mine once in a library," the Doctor cast Amy and Rory a nervous glance. "When you were inside, you had no idea the entire life you were living was a lie until someone pointed out the inconsistencies. But you don't appear to have a fully formed environment around you. Now, what is the very last thing you remember? Think hard."

Straightening his back and leaning forward, Apollo clearly knew his future was not a bright one. But he was facing it head on without a flinch.

"I can remember the pain, but I had to send out the distress call. I had to save my crew."

"You dragged yourself in here. You sent the distress call. The ship's computer recognized your wound to be fatal and 'saved' you. If we downloaded you, you would die. This technology is meant for permanent storage, or at least storage until a suitable remedy can be found."

"But what about my crew?"

"This is a one person ship. There was no crew."

"But I can hear them here with me, Doctor. Can't you hear them? There's a chorus of them everywhere. Do you hear the people? Do you hear the people sing?"

"His file is degrading. He might not make much sense from now on." The Doctor whipped around to the console. He pressed buttons so fast it seemed random. Humming as he worked, he scanned several screens at once under Apollo's watchful gaze. "There. The noise distortion should have stopped."

"It's getting quiet now. This song is ending, but the story never ends."

The Doctor froze. Amy recognized fear when she saw it. She rarely saw it in The Doctor.

"What did you say?"

"When the beating of your heart echoed the beat of the drums, he knocked four times. It returned Doctor, to destroy the world. But tomorrow came and your new life started."

"Who told you that?" Anger vibrated through The Doctor's every word. He was rage personified. If she didn't know better, Amy would think the metal console locked in his grip would begin to crack under the strain.

On the screen, Apollo's gaze was unfocused. He cocked his head to the side, considering The Doctor's question. "I don't know. It's something I've always known. Fantastic! Don't you think? You should hurry Doctor. One more day before the storm. The oncoming storm. Running. Always running, my Doctor. Running away or running to?"

"Stop!" The Doctor was trembling. He nearly slipped in his haste to get away. Suddenly clarity returned to Apollo's eyes.

"No more running, Doctor. Let me."

Explosions in the distance made them all jump in surprise. Amy gripped Rory's wrist tightly. He had a tendency to trip when sudden running was involved.

"What are you doing?"

"All the Dalek's here have been communicating on a single wavelength. Pretty irresponsible if you ask me. I'm sending an energy pulse back through this wavelength. Daleks go boom."

"Is that even possible?" Rory asked.

"I'm doing it and it's happening, so I think that would be a yes," Apollo snarked. A smile had returned to The Doctor's face. "But this also means their ships in orbit and the command centers here on the ground will start exploding soon too. I suggest you get back to the TARDIS."

Amy and Rory didn't need to be told twice. They bolted out into the hallway, racing towards the door that still remained partially open. They could see what remained of the Dalek outside shimmering in flames. But they soon realized the third member of their group wasn't with them.

As soon as the reached this realization, The Doctor was close behind and bouncing off walls as he ran and slipped his way ahead of them.

"Did you stop for a cup of tea?" Amy shouted angrily.

"I just had to say 'thank you' first," The Doctor responded. He should know by now that Amy could tell when he was lying. But she was willing to put that aside for now in light of the fact that they were all in mortal danger.

They reached the TARDIS easily despite the ground shaking beneath their feet. The doors flew open with a snap of the Doctor's fingers, and he didn't even break stride as he raced up to the console. He was already flipping levers and punching buttons when Rory shut the door behind them. That comforting wheezing noise echoed around them and the shaking stopped.

When Amy opened the door, she found herself in the park across the street from her and Rory's house. Rory slipped past her out the door the breath in the crisp autumn air.

The Doctor remained hunched over the console in the center of the room. The TARDIS hummed around them in concern.

"There was no distress call," he whispered.

"What do you mean?"

"The TARDIS didn't answer a distress call. She just went. It was like she knew he was in trouble and just went to him."

"Does that happen?"

"She has a mind of her own sometimes." The Doctor patted the metal in front of him gently, with love, before backing away to stand by Amy in the doorway. "But why him?"

Amy had no answer for her Raggedy Doctor. She watched as some of the neighborhood kids chased after Rory with their wooden swords. The hole in her heart that couldn't be filled pulsed with a sharp pang of pain. But that was a problem for another time.

"I'll be back soon," The Doctor promised. His eyes looked sad when Amy looked to him. The smile on his face couldn't hide it. She found herself wondering, not for the first time recently, what it was that had suddenly caused her friend to start watching her like she was about to disappear into thin air.

"No rush. Rory's covering some extra shifts at the hospital this month."

"Maybe I'll stop by just to 'hang.'"

Amy could hear the air quotes in his voice and laughed. "You wouldn't last ten minutes."

"You never know." The sadness had faded and the spark was back. Amy loved that spark. "Goodbye Amelia Pond."

"Goodbye Doctor." She pressed a chaste kiss to his cheek before heading out to meet her husband. With a soft click and mechanical wheeze, her oldest friend was off on another adventure.

Chasing Rory across the street, Amy knew that despite all the wondrous things she saw traveling with The Doctor, this was the life for her. All she needed was Rory by her side and she would be happy. And she would do anything to keep that stupid smile on his face.

As they played tag like school children, she bumped into a young man with a red hoodie and friendly American accent. His eyes looked familiar as they both stammered out apologies, but before she got her wits about her he was already disappearing around the corner. She quickly forgot about him as Rory grabbed her around the waist and spun her in a tight loop.

She was home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be starting the next part of the series tonight, so look for it soon. It will take place much more firmly in the world of Les Mis :)


End file.
